Furnace roof



April 21,' 1964 w. L. MURRAY 3,129,678

' FURNACE ROOF Filed Oct. 3, 1961 I/VVENTO/P W/LL IAM L. MURRAY 51 kmwfi$154;

A fforney United States Patent Ofiice 3,129,578 Patented Apr. 21, 19643,129,678 FURNAfIE ROOF William L. Murray, Duinth, Minn, assignor toUnited tates Steel Cerporatien, a corporation of New Jersey Fiied Oct.3, 1961, Ser. No. 142,591 1 Claim. (Ci. 11t 99) This invention relatesto a furnace roof and more particularly to a basic roof for open hearthfurnaces in which hold down beams are provided for limiting upwardexpansion of the arch. Prior to my invention it was common practice inorder to take care of roof irregularities to cut refractory bricks tothe desired size and insert the bricks between the bottom portions ofthe hold down beams and the arch bricks. This was not satisfactory sincethe bricks inserted between the beam and arch would fall out of placewhen the roof sagged even a relatively small amount. Thus, the hold downfunction of the beam was lost. Also, at times the bricks would becrushed due to excessive upward thrust of the roof.

It is therefore an object of my invention to provide a furnace roof inwhich means are associated with the hold down beams in such a mannerthat the hold down function of the beams is not lost.

This and other objects will be more apparent after referring to thefollowing specification and attached draw ing, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a plan view showing a portion of an open hearth roof;

FIGURE 2 is a view taken on the line IIH of FIG- URE 1; and

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged view of a portion of FIG- URE 2 showing thepresent invention.

Referring more particularly to the drawings reference numeral =2indicates front buckstays and reference numeral 4 the back buckstays ofan open hearth furnace. A basic brick sprung arch 6 extends between thefront and back buckstays and is supported by the skewbacks 8 and 10 inthe usual manner. A plurality of horizontal beams 12 arranged in pairswith their flanges facing each other extend between and are supported bythe buckstays 2 and 4. A plurality of webs 14 extend between and are supported by the webs of each pair of beams 12. Each of the webs 14 has ahole 16 therein for receiving a hold down rod 18 which is threaded atits upper end for receiving nuts 20, one on each side of the web 14. Aplurality of spaced apart I-beams 24 are arranged transversely of thebeams 12 on each side of the crown of the arch with their lower flangesspaced from the upper surface of the arch 6. The upper flanges of thebeams 24 support bent beams 26 which extend in the direction of the spanof the arch. The beams 24 are supported in any suitable manner by meansof the hold down rods 18. The particular supporting means 28 shown isthe subject matter of my copending application entitled SupportingStructure, Serial No. 142,733 filed October 3, 1961. Since thesupporting structure per se has nothing to do with the presentapplication it will not be described in detail. The bricks in arch '6may be supported from the beams 26 by means of hook rods St) in theusual manner. A plurality of steel wedges 32 are welded to the bottom ofthe lower flange of each of the beams 24 in spaced apart relationshiplongitudinally of the beams. Each of the wedges has the usual thick endand thin end connected by a sloping surface extending longitudinally ofthe span of the arch. Each of the wedges 32 has its thin end on the sidetoward the crown of the arch with a space being provided between thewedge and the top of the arch. A wedge 34 is associated with each of thewedges 32 and is constructed in essentially the same manner as wedge 32.However, its thick end is located on the side of the associated beamtoward the crown of the arch. After the bricks are assembled in rings toform the arch, the wedges 34 are positioned below the wedges 32 andbecause of the wedge fit the wedges can compensate for irregularitiesoccurring in the arch. Since the thin end of the wedge 34 pointsdownwardly in the direction of the slope of the arch it is impossiblefor it to become dislodged from its position even if the arch should sagsince in such case the wedge 34 would slide or tend to slide downwardlyalong the lower face of wedge 32.

While one embodiment of my invention has been shown and described itwill be apparent that other adaptations and modifications may be madewithout departing from the scope of the following claim.

I claim:

A furnace roof comprising a refractory arch, a plurality of hold downbeams extending transversely of the span of the arch in spaced apartrelationship on each side of the crown of the arch, each of said beamshaving a lower flange spaced from the top of said arch, means supportingeach of said beams in a substantially fixed vertical position, aplurality of wedges secured to the bottom of the lower flange of each ofsaid beams in spaced apart relationship longitudinally of said beams,each of said wedges having a thick end and a thin end connected with asloping surface extending longitudinally of the span of the arch, thethin end of each wedge being located on the side of the associated beamtoward the crown of said arch, each of said wedges being so dimensionedas to provide a space between the bottom thereof and the top of saidarch, and a wedge in said space associated with each of said first namedwedges with its thick end being located on the side of the associatedbeam toward the crown of said arch, the sloping surfaces of theassociated wedges engaging one another and the second named wedge beingmovable with respect to said first named wedge.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,563,248 Burroughs Nov. 24, 1925 2,063,748 Olsen Dec. 8, 1936 2,579,447Boucher Dec. 18, 1951 3,015,288 Hosbein et al Ian. 2, 1962 FOREIGNPATENTS 875,733 Great Britain Aug. 23, 1961 OTHER REFERENCES Heuer, R.P., et al.: The All-Basic Open Hearth European and American. In Journalof Metals, June 1950, pages 824-829,

